Colavaere Saighan

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Author: Atarah al'Norahn

COH-lah-veer SYE-gahn

General

Colavaere Saighan, head of House Saighan, is the highest ranking Cairhienin noble (TFoH, Ch. 46).

She is middle-aged and considered to be more than handsome; pretty, but not quite beautiful (TFoH, Ch. 46; Ch. 51). Like most Cairhienin noblewomen, she wears her hair in an ornate tower of curls, without a touch of gray (TFoH, Ch. 51; ACoS, Ch. 5). She has a musical voice, which Rand is used to hearing from Moiraine. He also notes that she gazes at him with the weighing-and-measuring look that Moiraine often uses (TFoH, Ch. 46). At one point, Rand also comments to himself that she is cold-blooded enough to do anything that will tie a thread of control to him (LoC, Ch. 51).

Colavaere dresses like all other Cairhienin noble women. Her dresses are striped horizontally, from her high collar of lace down to her knees in the colors of House Saighan: yellow, red, and silver (TFoH, Ch. 46; ACoS, Ch. 5).

Timeline

  • Colavaere has been sending young and beautiful women in an attempt to control Rand (TFoH, Ch. 51).
  • Rand tells Colavaere that she will eat dinner with him. He forgets, and when she shows up at his rooms, Aviendha beats her (TFoH, Ch. 52).
  • Rand disappears, and Colavaere has Meilan and Maringil murdered. She also meets with the members of many minor Cairhienin houses in an attempt to gain support for the Sun Throne (LoC, Ch. 53).
  • Colavaere is crowned the Queen of Cairhien (ACoS, Ch. 4).
  • Rand confronts Colavaere. She is found to be guilty of murder and treason. Rand strips her of her titles and tells Dobraine to find out which of the farms that Colvaere owned near the Dragonwall is the smallest. He exiles her to that farm, after which she faints (ACoS, Ch. 5).
  • Colavaere hangs herself rather than being exiled (ACoS, Ch. 19).

Relationships

Colavaere and Dobraine seem to be anything but friends; as nobles tend to do, they seem to be mostly at odds with each other. However, they both serve Rand, which ties them together whether they like it or not.

Colavaere's relationship with Rand is similar to his relationship with many of the nobles of Cairhien and Tear. She serves him, all the while trying to use everything that happens concerning him to her best advantage. After he invites her to have dinner with him, thus frightening her into thinking that he might be after her instead of someone younger, Rand hopes that she is at least somewhat afraid of him. After she takes the Sun Throne without his consent, all of his tolerance for her disappears. However, as she is female, he still does not wish to see her dead; instead of executing her, he exiles her...which, inevitably, leads right back to her execution.

Miscellaneous

  • After Rand arrives in Cairhien, the Lady Colavaere and the Lords Dobraine and Maringil present him with a gift. It is a chair, made in the Tairen style and very gaudy. It is held up by carved dragons that sparkle in red and gold enamel and gilt. Their eyes are made of two great sunstones. Two more identical dragons form the arms, and others just like them climb up the tall back. Rand thinks to himself that countless craftsmen must have gone without any sleep in order to have it made. Rand feels like a fool sitting in it (TFoH, Ch. 51).
  • Mattin Stepaneos believes that he is in danger from Rand al'Thor; he tells Egwene that Rand killed Colavaere in Cairhien, destroying half of the Sun Palace in the process, and Morgase in Caemlyn. Egwene informs him that Colavaere hanged herself, that the Sun Palace was damaged by enemies of Rand, and that Morgase was murdered by Rahvin. She also adds that any of the Aes Sedai could have told him so, if they had wanted to (KoD, Ch. 24).

Quotes

"My Lord Dragon. I welcome you back. Cairhien welcomes you back." (To Rand; A Crown of Swords, Chapter 5)

"My Lord Dragon. Cairhien has been too long without a ruler. A Cairhienin ruler. You yourself said you have no interest in the Sun Throne for youself. Elayne Trakand would have had some claim, if she were alive. Rumor says she is dead, like her mother." (To Rand; A Crown of Swords, Chapter 5)

"My Lord Dragon, what is done cannot be undone. If anything has offended you -" (To Rand; A Crown of Swords, Chapter 5)

"I have kept the laws you made, maintained your policies. Even those that go against the ancient laws of Cairhien, against all custom. My Lord Dragon, the Sun Throne is yours to give. I...know that. I - I wrong to take it without your leave. But I have the right to it, by birth and blood. If I must have it from your hand, then give it to me, by your hand. I have the right!" (To Rand; A Crown of Swords, Chapter 5)

"I - I demand the headsman. It is - it is my right. I will not be...hanged like some commoner!" (To Rand; A Crown of Swords, Chapter 5)

"I went to Colavaere's apartments." Images flashed in her head. The empty sitting room, all the servants gone. The bedchamber. She did not want to remember, but now she had begun, she could not stop the words tumbling out. "I thought, since you exiled her, maybe there was some way around the viewing I had of her." Colavaere had been wearing what must have been her finest gown, dark silk that glistened, with falls of delicate aged-ivory Sovarra lace. "I thought for once it didn't have to be that way. You're ta'veren. You can change the Pattern." Colavaere had donned a necklace and bracelets of emeralds and firedrops, and rings with pearls and rubies, surely her best pieces, and yellow diamonds had been arranged in her hair, a fair imitation of the crown of Cairhien. Her face... "She was in her bedchamber. Hanging from one of the bedposts." Bulging eyes and protruding tongue in a blackened, swollen face. Toes a foot above the overturned stool. Sobbing helplessly, Min sagged against him. (Min to Rand; A Crown of Swords, Chapter 19)

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